Yoshiki Hayashi - X Japan

Japan has introduced many things that have impacted society in many ways. Whether it is video games, electronics or art, it has injected into American society a lot more than most would believe. X Japan is the latest musical act to arrive onto American shores and attempting to crack into the musical market. Already a phenomenon within Japan, they have slowly built a following internationally through various animation festivals and word of mouth. The band was created through the vision of drummer Yoshiki Hayashi in 1982, where he fused the power of speed and thrash metal with the imagery of 80s glam rock, along with piano ballads in between. Their music has become a cultural phenomenon, and building a rabid fanbase throughout Japan. Yoshiki alone has built a merchandise empire, selling items ranging from dolls to condoms to jewelry. He has his own credit card, racing team, signature Hello Kitty figurine, and a recording label, Exstacy Records.X Japan recently completed their debut North American tour, and the word about them began spreading. Yoshiki spoke about the tour, the band’s origins, and his aspirations behind playing in America.

An interview with Yoshiki Hayashi of X Japan.

By Rei Nishimoto

Metal Exiles: Is this your first time playing in Los Angeles?

Yoshiki Hayashi: It’s our first time playing.

Metal Exiles: How exciting is it for you to finally play in Los Angeles after living here for so long?

YH: Exactly, right? I’ve lived here more than ten years. Almost like my hometown. Finally I can tell my friends…’I’m a musician!’

Metal Exiles: Now people will believe X Japan is a real band.

YH: I know. People think I’m in an imaginary world or something (laughs). They will see me perform here.

Metal Exiles: So when did you decide to restart X Japan?

YH: A little more than ten years ago X Japan broke up. The main reason was vocalist (Toshi) and I went separate ways. Then a year later one of my guitarists Hide died. I didn’t think X Japan could reunite. Then a little more than three years ago, Toshi called me out of nowhere. Then we started talking, but first of all, we had to fix our friendship before we started talking about the band. Then we talked for almost a year, becoming friends. Toshi and I grew up together, I met him when I was four years old. We were in the same kindergarten, junior high, and high school. Then we started talking about reuniting X Japan but that was the one time reunion concert. We didn’t know we could keep going but then we did three nights at Tokyo Dome, and we felt good. So we decided “Let’s do a few more shows”. After that we decided to do shows outside of Japan. When we did shows in Hong Kong and Taipei we realized we have a fan base outside of Japan. Then how about Europe? How about America? Then everybody said why not. That’s how everything started.

Metal Exiles: Back before the band originally broke up, did you attempt to play in America with X Japan?

YH: We wanted to release an album and also perform here (in Los Angeles) because we were already recording and living here. But we had internal problems. We couldn’t do that. We always wanted to do that.

Metal Exiles: You were doing a solo band during the time away from X Japan, is that right?

YH: Yes, I was also doing my classical music project.

Metal Exiles: I saw your videos on YouTube. You collaborated with people like Nicole Scherzinger from the Pussycat Dolls.

YH: Oh my god (laughs)! You’re the first person to ask me this! Yes I did but she wasn’t even part of the Pussycat Dolls at that time.

Metal Exiles: How did you find her?

YH: We had mutual friends and I thought she had a great voice. I asked ‘do you want to sing a few songs for me?’ And she said yes.

Metal Exiles: And then you flew her out to Japan?

YH: Yeah, for my solo concert. I was working with an orchestra so I invited her to sing two or three songs.

Metal Exiles: What were the other members of X Japan doing during that time off?

YH: I think they were all doing their solo albums. I’m still working on my solo stuff as well or classical music. X Japan came back besides what I have been working on as well.

Metal Exiles: You were part of creating Visual Kei in the 1980s. How did the whole concept originate from the image and concept behind it all?

YH: Visual Kei is like glam rock. My first band who I saw was KISS and KISS wore tons of makeup. I also liked artists like David Bowie and theSex Pistols. Since we are from Japan we have influences like Kabuki. We combined everything and I’m talking about the look. Also we’re very rebellious, we hated everything. At that time we were doing speed metal and they didn’t wear any makeup. So I’m going to put tons of makeup on and play speed or thrash metal.

Metal Exiles: What was the perception from international artists who saw this at that time? They probably weren’t familiar with Visual Kei?

YH: First of all, a lot of foreign artists came to Japan, we accepted them. There were a lot of popular bands. Then artists like us, the Visual Kei bands – I think we started making a statement. We were different than artists from all over the world. In the beginning, people were like ‘who’s that? What kind of artists are they?’ These days, people started being able to see foreign artists from Asia or the Middle East. People have become more flexible or acceptable.

Metal Exiles: You recently played Lollapalooza in Chicago. How was that experience?

YH: That was great. We were very excited and also very nervous. I didn’t know what kind of reaction we could get. Then the beginning of our appearance, we had a few thousand people. Towards the end of the appearance, it tripled and quadrupled. That gave us confidence. Then that made me decide to do a US tour.

Metal Exiles: Did you get to meet any of the other bands at Lollopolluza like Lady Gaga or Green Day?

YH: I didn’t see them but I saw them on YouTube. They’re great. I saw a little bit of Soundgarden. I couldn’t really see it but I went close enough to hear Arcade Fire.

Metal Exiles: Visual Kei was popular in Japan but what do you think it was that appealed to people outside of Japan? It was something that almost unknown here until recently.

YH: First of all, the Visual Kei’s spirit is more like freedom of how you’re describing. Also a lot of Visual Kei artists did the same songs for some animation. The animation itself became big worldwide. A lot of animation fans started listening to Visual Kei bands. I think that was a lot of the reasons Visual Kei started getting noticed. Also we created a little different genre.

Metal Exiles: Have you done appearances at the Animation festivals around the US?

YH: I appeared at Otakon, which is in Baltimore. I was there a few months ago. Then I did a few appearances at anime conventions as well as Anime Central in Chicago. Also I did some appearances in Paris called Japan Expo.

Metal Exiles: X Japan is working on a new album. How is that coming along?

YH: 50% of the new album comes from all of the hits and 50% are new songs. All of the old X Japan songs I rewrote lyrics into English which is very interesting. Same songs but Japanese lyrics and English lyrics version. It’s getting there. I’d say we’re 80 to 90 percent done already. It’s coming out early next year.

Metal Exiles: For the live show, are you doing Japanese versions or English versions of your songs?

YH: It’s going to be a combination. I’d say English heavy. More English than Japanese. It’s interesting but not easy because we’re still learning English. It’s not perfect but we’re trying.

Metal Exiles: You recently filmed a video in Los Angeles at Kodak Theater. Could you explain how the concept came together?

YH: Actually I was working on some gaming project and then we had to do some music videos. Because of the game, we have a bigger budget than coming from the record company. Also we wanted the fans to participate, somewhere the fans could find the place easily in Los Angeles. I wanted the Kodak Theater but how are we going to do it? I asked why can’t we create a stage on top of the roof of the Kodak Theater? I was just joking but everything happened. We announced it two weeks or ten days prior to the video shoot. So thousands of fans then showed up. We also made a stage on top of the Kodak Theater. That’s how it happened.

Metal Exiles: I saw you had helicopters filming too?

YH: Yes, to film the audience and fans and everything from the sky.

Metal Exiles: How long did it take you to film the video?

YH: We’re still editing some of it. We’re going to release four songs from there.

Metal Exiles: I read you did multiple nights in Tokyo at a stadium of 75,000 to 80,000 people a night.

YH: We had those shows about one month ago. Actually it was August 14th and 15th and about 65,000 each night. It’s a soccer stadium which they made for the World Cup. It was great outside of it was humid. I don’t like Japanese summertime. That’s why I live in Los Angeles.

Metal Exiles: Looking back at your career, did you ever imagine a fan base this rabid and global 20 years into the future?

YH: I didn’t really picture but I had a dream. Then the dream came true. After performing in America I’m a believer of dreams. So we tried to make our dreams come true.

Metal Exiles: You did the Black Diamond cover on the Kiss My Ass: Classic KISS Regrooved CD. How did you get on that? You were the one artist who was nearly unknown in America at that time with people like Lenny Kravitz, Garth Brooks and Gin Blossoms.

YH: At that time I had a manager named Doc McGhee. He was telling me KISS was making a tribute album then somehow I met Gene Simmons. Then we became good friends as well. He found out that X Japan was very popular in Japan. In the beginning, I was participating only for the Japanese version of the KISS tribute album. They had the same album in Germany but a German version. But towards the end he liked it so much so he said ‘I’m going to put your song on the international version for the whole world.’

Metal Exiles: That was a cool version you did. A piano version and very different than the original. You still kept it to the original.

YH: Thank you. How am I going to make a piano concerto version of Black Diamond? Somehow I made it.

Metal Exiles: Are you still doing Extacy Records?

YH: Yes and no. Because I am concentrating on being an artist these days, I do less producing and record company activities. I still have those small labels too.

Metal Exiles: Were you working with bands like Dir En Grey?

YH: I produced their debut album. I’m not producing any other bands though. We’re still good friends and some of them came to our show in Japan one month ago.

Metal Exiles Is this US tour an experiment towards a bigger tour in the future?